Just an update on progress... Since I'm a one man show I have to try and divide my efforts accross many areas, this week I've been working on some 3D models and some behind the scenes blueprinting. There's not going to be a lot of models in the game really, but I wanted to have at least one cut scene where your ship the "Ark" is travelling away from Earth. So I modelled the shapeship :) Here's a look at the ship in the game - although it might not every really make it IN the game, I thought it'd be cool to render a shot in Unral Engine 4 :) - it's not too bad, I need to work on my modelling skills though!

On the Blueprint side of things I have worked out the "Elements" system, basically I am going to have all of the elements set up in a Custom Struct called "Element", and the various areas that need it will have an array of the "Element" Struct

The Element struct looks like:

ElementID

ElementName

ElementDescription

ElementPicture

Quantity

I figure I'll be using this Struct for setting up the base elements that are available in the game, your inventory, and also what elements are available on a given planet, so I added "Quantity" because at least two of the areas will be using it.

Starting to work on the interface for the game, the idea is that you are standing on the bridge of a large spaceship and looking through it's front "windows". I am modelling this in Maya, and it still needs some textures and other details but I think this is a good start.

That brings up a good point - what software am I using to make the game? :)

I am doing modelling in Maya, sculting (if any) in ZBrush, texture painting will be done in Substance Painter, and the game is being made with the Unreal Engine 4, AND I'll be using Unreal's Blueprint system for all of the game functionality.

Blueprints are one of the ways in Unreal Engine that you can "Code" game functionality. It's a visual scripting system that makes "Coding" very easy. Here's an example of some Blueprint Nodes. This picture is all it takes to Show the Inventory screen and call the animation of it sliding in when the player presses the "I" key. Blueprint scripting is VERY cool!

Hi and welcome to the Colony Game website! Colony is a new game I am starting to make and going to release!

Game Synopsis

The basis of the game is that the world is in it's last days, you are tasked with taking the remaining population upon a galactic ark to attemp to seek out and colonize a suitable planet. You have a limited amout of resources and so you have to gather them from planets that you discover.

You will also encounter other life forms that are on these planets, some will be peaceful, wile others may be hostile! You must attempt to communicate with these life forms to be able to open up trades and possibly set up colonies that coexist with them.

You must save the human race!

What stage is the game out now?

I am at the early stages of the game, I am working out the planet system and elements system first. I am thinking that the games will be short games that you can win or lose in a few hours or less, I don't (at first) want to make something that spans for days and days. So each time you fire up the game a random planet system with random resources are generated for a totally unique game. This may all change in the future, but for right now, this is my goal for the game.

I will be posting updates and some screenshots once I get more things you can actually see! and I've got some cool ideas in store for the game and I'll be elaborating on those as I work out the systems for them so stay tuned!

About Varitech Games

Varitech Games is really just me so far, I'm a one man operation. I'm Jamie Cunningham, and my handle is "GeeksGoneBad" on most forums.

I have been a software developer for like 30 years. I have dabbled in 3D graphics and special fx for film and video for like 10 years, I've also done a lot of work concerning music and composing, but again only at the hobby level, and this is my first run at making anything game related.